The Director of Human Resources at Tigo Ghana, Elizabeth Arhin, has urged the human resources community in the country to embrace technology to engage employees.

Speaking on a topic “Employee Engagement in a Digital Age” at the fourth edition of HR Focus Conference and Awards in Accra, she said business today happens at lightning speed, as result, human resources practitioners should deploy innovative ways of engagement.

She noted: “The days when employee engagement consisted of an outing for the team or an end of year soiree are long gone.”
  
“Employees want – and expect to be constantly engaged by their employer, in new, diverse and captivating ways.”    

She said that many things have been tried by many companies, but “why, at all, is employee engagement important to the business?” she questioned and added that there is a direct correlation between employee engagement and company performance.  

“It stands to reason that happy and engaged employees give of their best to their employer and this feeds into how well that company achieves its objectives in any given month or year.”

Ms. Arhin further quizzed the participants of the conference. In this current digital age in which we find ourselves, how are we maximizing the availability and capability of technology in our employee engagement activities?  

Citing Tigo, she disclosed how the company has developed innovative solutions to ensure that its employees live the company’s digital lifestyle agenda. One such instance is how the company has provided employees with opportunities to purchase smartphones at reduced rates and on flexible payment terms.  

“This makes it possible for them to access many of the apps that most of us now access to make our hectic lives easier and more productive.” 

She also noted that employees’ learning is done online via a learning management system which allows them the flexibility to complete courses at their own pace and at any location.

“We leverage digital means to send out information to staff run online employee engagement surveys which help us to ‘hear’ our people and address their issues. We also hold Town Hall Meetings with digital connections to all our regional offices.”

Concluding her thought-provoking speech, Ms Arhin commented, saying “employee engagement is key; it will help us to retain our key employees, maintain a happy workforce and build and maintain a productive workforce.”

The conference was organised by L’aine Services Limited on the theme: “Creating People Advantage; A Must for HR”. The event also gave organisations the opportunity to showcase their recruitment processes, products and services.